1. “The Third Wish”
By Joan Aiken

2. Vocabulary Verge: Edge, brink
Dabbling: Wetting by dipping or splashing
Presumptuous: Overconfident, lacking respect
Rash: Done too quickly and without thinking
Remote: Far away; distant
Malicious: Hateful, spiteful

3. Elements of a Fairy Tale
Include fantasy, supernatural or make-believe aspects.
Clearly defined good characters and evil characters.
Magic - people, animals, or objects.
“Magical” numbers of three or seven
Often have happy endings
Usually teach a lesson or demonstrate values important to the culture.

4. Inference

5. Making Inferences
An inference is a logical idea that a reader develops about unstated information.
To make an inference, readers must recognize details, directly and indirectly stated. Next, they connect those ideas with what they already know.
Then, the reader develops an informed idea or inference about the characters, setting, and events based on that information.

6. Conflict

7. A conflict is a struggle between one person or thing and another person or thing. Most stories have conflicts. The story ends when the conflict is solved. This is called the resolution.
• In an external conflict, a character struggles with another person or even nature.
• In an internal conflict, a character struggles with a problem that is inside him or her. These problems can be beliefs, feelings, needs, or desires.

8. As he neared the bushes he saw something white among them which was trying to extricate itself; coming closer he found that it was a swan that had become entangled in the thorns growing on the bank of the canal.
What is the swan’s conflict? Is the swan’s conflict an internal or external conflict?

9. He [the King] had fierce glittering eyes and looked by no means friendly. "Well, Sir," he said threateningly.
What is the conflict? Is the conflict an internal or external conflict?

10. The only thing that troubled him was that he was a little lonely, and had no companion for his old age. He decided to use his first wish and to keep the other two in case of an emergency
What is Mr. Peters' conflict? Is Mr. Peters' conflict an internal or external conflict?

11. “Leita, what is it?” he asked, very troubled.
Leita was weeping, and as he came nearer he saw that tears were rolling, too, from the swan’s eyes.
“Leita, what is it?” he asked, very troubled.
“This is my sister,” she answered. “I can’t bear being separated from her.”
What is the conflict? Is the conflict an internal or external conflict?

12. “Don’t you love me at all, Leita?”
“Yes, I do. I do love you,” she said, and there were tears in her eyes again. “But I miss the old life in the forest ”
What is the Leita’s conflict? Is Leita’s conflict an internal or external conflict?

13. “No, I could not be as unkind to you as that
“No, I could not be as unkind to you as that. I am partly a swan, but I am also partly a human being now. I will stay with you.”
What is the Leita’s conflict? Is Leita’s conflict an internal or external conflict?

14. Vocabulary Verge: Edge, brink
Dabbling: Wetting by dipping or splashing
Presumptuous: Overconfident, lacking respect
Rash: Done too quickly and without thinking
Remote: Far away; distant
Malicious: Hateful, spiteful

15. Vocabulary
He took it to the verge of the canal and dropped it in. The swan instantly assumed great dignity and sailed out to the middle of the water, where it put itself to rights with much dabbling and preening, smoothing its feathers with little showers of drops. “Well, Sir," he said threateningly, "I see you are presumptuous enough to know some of the laws of magic. Taking a thorn he pricked his tongue with it, to remind himself not to utter rash wishes aloud. Then he took her to his house in a remote and lovely valley and showed her all his treasures. He heard a harsh laugh behind him, and turning round saw the old King looking at him with a malicious expression.

16. Based on the way the word malicious is used in this passage, what would you say is a characteristic of a malicious person?
He heard a harsh laugh behind him, and turning round saw the old King looking at him with a malicious expression.

17. What is the meaning of the word remote, as it is used in the following sentence? Mr. Peters' house is so remote that the nearest neighbor lives miles away, there are no malls nearby, and only sounds of nature can be heard.

18. Inferences

19. Detail About a Character Inference About the Character
1. Presently, the swan, when it was satisfied with its appearance, floated in to the bank once more, and in a moment, instead of the great white bird, there was a little man all in green.
2. Mr. Peters wishes for a wife “as beautiful as the forest.” A woman appears who is “the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, with eyes as blue-green as the canal, hair as dusky as the bushes, and skin as white as the feathers of swans.”
3. But as time went by Mr. Peters began to feel that [Leita] was not happy. She seemed restless, wandered much in the garden, and sometimes when he came back from the fields he would find the house empty. She would return after half an hour with no explanation of where she had been.
4. After Leita was returned to the form of a swan, she “rested her head lightly against [Mr. Peters’s] hand Next day he saw two swans swimming at the bottom of the garden, and one of them wore the gold chain he had given Leita after their marriage; she came up and rubbed her head against his hand.”